Details of a new scheme for promptly resolving legal disputes between bankers and defaulting debtors were announced yesterday by Thailand’s Finance Minister, Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda.
There is a backlog of court cases relating to bad debts totalling an estimated figure of between Bt800bn and Bt1,000. These cases could potentially cause “a frightening overload” of the judicial system according to Mr Tarrin.
To facilitate the swift resolution of this bumper volume of court cases, Mr Tarrin has announced that the government decided last week to set up special arbitration panels of retired judges, lawyers and financial experts in 146 civil courts.
It is hoped that the two parties in each case will use the arbitration panel prior to entering court, in order to reach a compromise settlement that would then be approved by the court, thereby streamlining the whole procedure and minimizing the actual court time spent on each case.
